UOB Global Currency Account review - great multi-currency business account for companies in Singapore?

If you’re looking for a way to manage your business finances across currencies, you may be thinking of applying for a UOB Global Currency Account¹. This popular business account lets Singapore residents with incorporated business entities at home or abroad hold foreign currency balances and send and receive international payments.

This guide walks through how the account works, its features and benefits and how to apply. We’ll also compare the UOB Global Currency Account with another popular business bank account from DBS, and the Wise Business account, so you can see the similarities and differences, and weigh up your options.

UOB Global Currency Account benefits and key features

The UOB Global Currency Account lets you hold a balance in around 10 foreign currencies, with free chequing facilities, mobile and online banking facilities. You’ll also be able to earn interest on currency balances - but at the time of writing, the interest rates applicable are 0% for most currencies, and negative for JPY. Double check the interest rates before you apply if this feature is important to you.

Multi-currency capabilities

The currencies that can be supported by the UOB Global Currency Account include:

• US dollar
• Australian dollar
• Canadian dollar
• Euro
• Japanese yen
• New Zealand dollar
• British pound
• Swiss franc
• Hong Kong dollar
• Chinese renminbi (offshore)

It’s useful to know that the opening deposit, minimum balance amount and fall below fees all vary based on the currency you hold in your account. Full details are available on the UOB desktop site - we’ve primarily used USD as our example currency when quoting fees in this article.

Eligibility requirements

You can open a UOB Global Currency account with any of the following business entity types:

• Sole Proprietorship owned by an individual
• Sole Proprietors (non-individual)
• Partnerships, Limited Partnerships and Limited Liability Partnerships
• Private Limited Companies incorporated in Singapore
• Foreign incorporated companies
• Official organisations like Clubs, Associations and Societies
• Professional Practice
• Management Corporation Strata Title (MCST)

The documents needed for opening your account will depend on the entity type you have, and your personal situation. There’s a very helpful selection of application documents and checklists, split out by entity type on the UOB Business website where you can learn all the details to make your account application².

Fees and charges related to UOB business accounts

Let’s look at the key fees related to opening and using a UOB Global Currency business account. Bear in mind these are only the most common charges, and you’ll need to also refer to the UOB fee schedule to double check for any additional costs before you open your account:

UOB foreign exchange rate

When you send an overseas payment with UOB, online or in person, you’ll pay a few different fees. One of them is a fee which is rolled into the exchange rate used to convert your funds. This is called an exchange rate markup.

Exchange rate markups are very common but can be tricky to spot and mean you’re paying more than you think for your international transfer.

To see the exchange rate markup used by UOB you’ll first need to check the mid-market exchange rate for the currency you need - get this with a Google search or a currency conversion tool. This is a handy benchmark as it’s the rate used by banks trading currencies on wholesale markets. Compare the UOB rate for your transfer against the mid-market rate and you can find the markup used. Markups are variable depending on market conditions and the currencies involved - and can push up overall costs significantly.

Not all business account services use exchange rate markups - we’ll look at Wise Business next, as a non-bank provider which uses the mid-market rate with no markup and transparent fees.

Multi-currency business account comparison: UOB, DBS and Wise Business

Not sure of the right business account for you? Let’s look at a comparison between UOB, the popular DBS Business Multi-Currency Account⁵, and non-bank alternative - Wise Business.

We’ll run through their key costs and features side by side to help you get an idea of whether any of these may suit your specific needs.

Pricing/fees: Please see Terms of Use for your region or visit Wise Fees & Pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information

Wise Business is a flexible and low cost way to manage your business finances across currencies. Hold and manage 40+ currencies in the same place, receive payments like a local with bank details for up to 9 currencies, and spend in 150+ countries with Wise debit and expense cards.

Whenever you need to exchange currencies in your account, when sending a payment to others or when you spend with your card you’ll get the mid-market exchange rateand low feesfrom 0.43%.

Plus, Wise can help you save time, too. Connect your Wise Business account to Xero or Quickbooks for easy reconciliations, send batch payments to up to 1,000 people conveniently, and use the Wise API to automate workflows. Easy.

Wise isn’t a bank, but it’s regulated by Singapore authorities and safe to use, as well as being overseen by regulators in a whole range of other countries globally.

Learn more about Wise Business

Summary: is UOB Global Account a great option for global businesses?

The UOB Global Account offers Singapore based business owners options to hold a balance in 10 major foreign currencies, with chequing facilities, online and mobile banking and more. You’ll be able to link a debit card if you’d like to - and because UOB is a large and established bank you can find pretty much any financial service you might need all from the one place.

UOB does have a few fees you’ll want to check out before you apply. For the Global Account there are fairly high fall below fees which vary by currency, with a minimum balance which can also be pretty restrictive. If you’re looking for something a bit more flexible, check out Wise Business instead. Choose Wise to hold, send, spend and receive a broad selection of foreign currencies with the mid-market exchange rate and low, transparent fees.